Constitutional
Act
Claude Bélanger,
Department of History,
Marianopolis College Act
passed in 1791 by the Parliament of Great Britain to provide for
the administration of the Province of Quebec and to meet the demands
of the new British subjects who had flocked to the province following
the American Revolution. The statute separated the old Province
of Quebec into two new colonies: Upper and Lower Canada. The former
would be primarily English speaking (present day Southern Ontario)
and was expected to introduce English Common Law and to establish
officially the Church of England; the latter would be primarily
French speaking (present day Southern Quebec) where French Civil
Laws would be applied and where the Roman Catholic Church would
predominate. The bill also granted representative assemblies to
both colonies. These colonial legislatures would control the civil
list and raise revenues for the good government of their territories.
Executive power would rest in the hands of a governor in each
colony and he was to be assisted in his task by an executive council whose members would be chosen by him and would not be responsible
for their actions to the assemblies. This last provision - the
lack of responsibility in the executive branch - is a factor that
led to the Rebellions of 1837-1838 in Upper and Lower Canada and
to the sending of Lord Durham to Canada to investigate the situation.
Meeting
of the first elected Legislative Assembly
of
Lower Canada in 1792
©
1998 Claude Bélanger, Marianopolis College
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